Challenger expedition
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The Challenger expedition of 1872-77 was a scientific expedition that made many discoveries to lay the foundation of oceanography, named after the mother vessel, HMS Challenger.
Prompted by the Scot, Charles Wyville Thomson—of the University of Edinburgh and Merchiston Castle School—the Royal Society of London obtained the use of Challenger from the Royal Navy and in 1872 modified it for scientific work, equipping her with separate laboratories for natural history and chemistry.
The ship, commanded by Captain George Nares, sailed from Portsmouth, England, on 21 December 1872.[1] Under the scientific supervision of Thomson himself, she travelled nearly 70,000 nautical miles (130,000 km) surveying and exploring. The result was the Report Of The Scientific Results of the Exploring Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873-76 which, among many other discoveries, catalogued over 4,000 previously unknown species. John Murray, who supervised the publication, described the report as "the greatest advance in the knowledge of our planet since the celebrated discoveries of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries". Challenger sailed close to Antarctica, but not within sight of it.[2]
Challenger returned to Spithead, Hampshire on 24 May 1876, having spent 713 days at sea out of the intervening 1,606.[1] On her 68,890-nautical-mile (127,580 km) journey,[1] she conducted 492 deep sea soundings, 133 bottom dredges, 151 open water trawls, 263 serial water temperature observations, and discovered about 4,700 new species of marine life. Copies of the written records of the Challenger Expedition are now stored in several marine institutions around the UK including the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton and the Dove Marine Laboratory in Cullercoats, Tyne and Wear.
The Space Shuttle Challenger was named after HMS Challenger.[3]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Rice, A.L. (1999). "The Challenger Expedition". Understanding the Oceans: Marine Science in the Wake of HMS Challenger. Routledge. pp. 27–48. ISBN 978-1857287059. http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=F5agn3NSzEoC&pg=PA27.
- ^ Scott, Keith (1993). The Australian Geographic book of Antarctica. Terrey Hills, New South Wales: Australian Geographic. pp. 115. ISBN 1862760101.
- ^ "Challenger (STA-099, OV-99): Background". Joyhn F. Kennedy Space Center. http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/shuttle/resources/orbiters/Challenger.html. Retrieved 2008-12-21.
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Illustrations from the Challenger Voyage 1873-76 |
- R. M. Corfield. The Silent Landscape: the Scientific Voyage of HMS Challenger. Joseph Henry Press, 2003. ISBN 0-309-08904-2
- Report Of The Scientific Results of the Exploring Voyage of H.M.S. Challenger during the years 1873-76
- Challenger Society
- HMS Challenger online exhibit
